


Dateing With Sam Reed As Your Gui- Don't

by AmberKellyDarrow



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: A lot of Illegal things, Attempted Murder, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bondage, Confusing Realtionships, Crying, Cute Supporting Family, Death, F/F, F/M, Friends With Benefits, I do go through a lot to avoid Mary-sues, I made his boxes more abusive than cannon, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Just like talking about the past it's a graphic, Kidnapping, M/M, Miscarriage, Multi, Murder, Non-supportive Family, Overused super hero backstory, PTSD, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Peter rethinks his life, Sex, Swearing, Their all under like 25, There are a lot of Origanal Characters, Underage is mentioned but not described, Wade acts like a child a lot, Wade is sad a lot and he kinda hates himself, What is cannon age? It doesn't apply in this, everyone gets a happy ending, i guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-06-01 23:38:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6541429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmberKellyDarrow/pseuds/AmberKellyDarrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Reed's entire knowledge of herself is destroyed at 15 by a man named Denis Corrigan when he attacks her. From a promising straight-A student she is tossed into the darker sides of New York City, and 7 years latter she's made quite the name for herself, using above human strength and accelerated healing she takes part in illegal fights for a living. She's made friends, and learns to trust people again, but through miscommunication, and a few unfortunately timed events she'll lose that ability to trust, her already finely balanced health and what she thought she knew all over again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. School and Birthday Plans

She walked up to the table hoping the cut on her lip hadn’t healed yet, “S, let’s see... 700, you did well tonight, Here it is.” A man said shuffling a few things around, looking at a book, than what looked a lot like putting something into his pocket. She took the envelope from the man, walked to the side and ripped it open. She counted once, and frowned. She counted it again. 500.

 

“Where’s the rest, Weas-y?” She stepped closer towering over the man in the chair, she sounded almost sweet.

“It’s all there… I swear!” He was scrambling for words, her face was set and blank. She, in a second, had the man against the wall, ready to break his neck.

“Now, you of all people should know better than to cheat me.” She smiled and grabbed one of his hands with her free one, she squeezed feeling the first bones crack, “You gonna give me my money now Weasel, or do I need to break something else?” She let go of the hand, and put a bit more pressure on his throat. He had started to gasp for air, he knew she’d kill him if he fought back, he knew he had no choice.

 

The girl continued to stare at him, years of hurting people for a living has let her feel next to nothing. By now everyone who came to The School more than once knew better than to mess with her. She was young, and one of the few females who took this line of work, but if she thought you were being easy on her she’d be ending your career as a illegal fighter that night.

“O-Okay it’s i-in my pocket…” He reached into his jeans pocket taking out an envelope.

She grabbed it, and looked inside; two Bens. “Who the fuck was stupid enough to put hundreds on anything here?” She mumbled to herself the bills must have come from The Math Ring, unless Weasel ran short you got paid in anything but hundreds.

“See, not hard.” She threw him into a nearby table and left the old warehouse. 

 

~~~~

 

“How’d it go?” A voice came from the couch.

“Did you go on a beer run yet?” Nothing could get her drunk, but she still got the burn which was enough.

“Did you lose?” The voice laughed.

“No, but Weas-y tried to cheat me again. The guys I was against tonight were nothing, mostly new kids, you know how it is - they see me and they laugh, they learnt their lesson. There was this one guy though, if he can last a few more months he’ll be good.” She opened the fridge, grabbing two of the bottles, raked a hand through her hair, and grabbed a shirt she hoped was hers from the nearly empty laundry basket, she’d have to do laundry tomorrow.

“I can fuck him up if you want.”

“Which one, Weasel or the kid?” She fell on the couch, and peeled her stained t-shirt off.

“For you my friend, both.” He smiled, and opened the bottles. 

“I’m good, I nearly snapped his neck.” She let out a small chuckle, and grabbed the open beer he offered after yanking her bra off and pulling the clean shirt on. It was too big and not hers.

“Weasel or the kid?” He asked.

“Both.” She took a swig of the beer and pulled her feet up laying them across her roommate. “What about you, Wade? Any new jobs?”

“Yeah, guy contacted today, wants me to get rid of a nanny who's taking care of more than just his kids.” He said taking a sip from his own bottle.

“You gonna take it?”

“Oh yea, I didn’t tell you the best part - guys rich; 40 grand.” He smiled, it’s was 5 times his normal pay.

“Oh my god! Wade, how’d you get him up that high?” She was grinning as she threw her arms around him, “That’s what you get in six months on one job!”

“Apparently a guy with bad glasses in bar referred him to me without saying my prices.”

“Maybe we should ask glasses if he could never mention price. Hey, your birthday is Friday, have any ideas?”

“There’s this bowling alley diner place, might be fun? Or we could annoy the guys at the mansion, I heard they got someone new.” 

“‘S your day, you get to choose.” She snached the remote from the table, flipping through the menu.

“Bowling Alley then, oh could I invite another friend.”

“Mm, go ahead.” She put on some cop show, “So I know what I’m walking into, Who?”

“I don’t think you’ve met,” He paused thinking back over the past few years, nothing with his description came up, “You haven’t met, I wouldn’t worry, I think he live traps mice.”

“Yeah’hu.”

 

One episode went by, half way through the second she remembered, “If you're not doing anything saturday I have a pretty good fight set up over in East House.”

“How much is it on.”

“6000”

“Shit Sam, you’re not going to swing and bet it are you?”

“No, this guy, he’s new and hasn’t lost yet. A lot of people are going against me.”

“When?”

“9.”

“I’ll be there, sounds like it’ll be good.”

“Yea.” 

As long as he’s not another mutant.

 

Another episode, another bout of near silence except for the occasion ‘he’s hot’ or ‘Dibs’ or ‘I already called dibs on her, Pizza Face’ followed by ‘fuck you too’. 

“Dibs.”

“On what? The Canned Tuna? Is this a new fetish you haven’t told me about?”

“You.”

“Realy, Wade, you don’t need to call dibs every night.” She laughed, moving her partly numb legs under her, leaning forward a bit closer to Wade.

“But I like to.” He moved closer pressing his mouth to her’s, she bit his bottom lip and they fought for dominance, he won. She quickly tugged on his shirt he pulled hers in return, they split just long enough get rid of the cloth - it fell, a tangled black heap, to the floor.

She ran her fingers over his muscular frame, feeling the subtle movements of his cells. He quickly pushed down on her shoulders and pressed her onto her back, she almost couldn’t keep herself from laughing, the way Wade could make her feel so much less weird, so normal when he started to nip at her collarbone like the mark could last more than half an hour, the way he would ignore how her strength didn’t at all match her tiny body. With him she could feel normal for once, and not concentrate only on not killing him - like she had to with so many other people.

 

~~~~

 

Pinning down when she woke up would be hard, first her brain woke up, but instead of doing anything she tried to cuddle closer into the man she was using as a pillow. Than she got a cold chill, her blindly search and found what felt like their long abandoned shirts, she flattened it the best she could with her eyes closed and using one hand. She fell asleep again, and woke up again with Dr. Ho telling you all about his adhesive electrocution pads. She pulled her arms tight around Wade again and opened her eyes, he was staring back at her, “Morning.”

“How long have you been up?”

“Not long.” He said pulling himself up a bit, “Pancakes?”

“Hell fucking yes.” She smiled, and pushed herself onto her elbows, her shirt blanket fell onto the floor, and she rolled off of his chest.

Sam was turning a t-shirt right side out when Wade asked where his boxers where, she found them under the coffee table, he tugged them on then walk over to the kitchen and started to move things around, she pulled on the shirt, the sleeves went to her forearms and it ended at her knees. She walked over to the kitchen area, opened the fridge and grabbed the milk jug and blueberries, “Take what you need for milk, I’m finishing it in a minute.” She shoved the milk toward him and opened the container of blueberries taking a handful.

“How much do you want?” He was fighting with the cupboard trying to keep a cake pan from falling and the door to close.

“A dozen sounds good. This person who’s joining us, do they have a name?”

He ignored her question, “A dozen blueberry pancakes for the pretty blonde at the kitchen table chef.” He started in his own voice then continued in a terrible french accent, “Coming right up, Wade. Would the young lady like maple syrup this morning?” Then back in his normal voice while pouring flour into a bowl he said, “Well, gezz I knew I forgot something, let me ask.” He turned to her, she was leaning against the counter, she was trying not to look amused, but she had the smallest grin, “Ma’am would you like maple syrup with your pancakes?”

She smiled, “One; you’re crazy, two; yes I would like syrup.” They went about their normal cooking routine in silence, with someone talking about their cancerous hair removal on the T.V. Sam got plates and moved a box of ammunition from the table to their second bedroom. Wade mumbled under his breath about god knows what, and their neighbours above them decided now was the best time to practise their violin, well until Wade shot another hole in the ceiling and yelled that the next one wouldn’t be in the guy's floor. A good normal Saturday morning. Then someone knocked on the door. Sam got it at the risk of burnt food if she didn’t. 

 

She looked out, he was dressed way to nice to be anything but religious, She opened to the door, “Look I’ll make it easy for you, I don’t give a fuck about your cute little cult, my friend and I have lost god a long time ago and we aren't looking for him, so you can leave.” 

“Miss, God does love you even if his tests caused you to turn your back on him -” She felt bad for a second about what she was about to do, the man was young, probably still doing this for mom.

“You wanna see God's tests, buddy, here I’ll show what happened when god tested me.” His smile seemed to fall as Sam reached to the table beside the door grabbing the small revolver they kept there, she pressed her hand to the table leg and the gun to the back of her palm. She flinched when she pulled the trigger whispering a few expletives under her breath. “Oh. No, you're going to watch this.” She grabbed the man's hand and held up her own so he could see the hole. “Oh, that is bleeding a lot more than last time. Look at that you can see the bones working their way back to normal already.” It wasn’t pretty, she’d never say it was, she even lost her stomach the first time she saw her own body heal, with they way the muscles grew and stretched and how the skin kinda bubbled.

The skin started to smooth in a minute and she dropped the man's hand. He stared at her wide eyed. He backed away, starting to tremble. “You have delt with dark forces. I will - I will be back to cleanse this place. We will save you.” He ran down the hall. She leaned out.

“Okay, see you later!” She waved.

 

When she got back to the kitchen her hand had stopped burning too much, and two large plates of pancakes were on the table. They ate as she retold the story of the man at the door. Wade insisted on looking at her hand for ten minutes to make sure the bone went together with ‘bunching’; their word for when extra bone fragments get healed back to the body, the pieces would eventually be dissolved back into their bloodstream, but the process takes a few hours. “Could you stop rubbing my hand Wade, the muscles are still sore, the shot was clean - I’m sure it’s fine.” She said getting annoyed after the third time he had reached over to inspect her palm.

“What? I’m not allowed to be concerned about my friend. You should see her when I come home hurt - it’s like I’m five, but when she shoots her fucking hand to get rid of some Cathie I can’t check that it’s gonna heal today.” The man continued his rant at the - whatever he talked to for a minute before he started to move into memories the made Sam cringe even if they were alone.

“So your friend is he one of us?” She said halfway through a bite of pancake.

“Huh? Oh yea, I mean he kinda is.” Snapping out of his trance.

“What part of us is he ‘kinda’?”

“The, um powers part.”

“Powers, so he wasn’t born into this shit, lucky him. So how’d he get them?”

“Radiation, mostly he’s strong.”

“Like a baby version of Mr. Anger Management. Fun. Does Mr. Radiation have a name?”  
“Yeah, Peter.”


	2. Laundry Day

The laundromat had 3 people in it; a college student reading a text book, who looked ready to pass out; a young woman with blonde hair, who kept staring at shirts mumbling something than putting them into a washer or giving them to a man, who despite her asking would not take his hood down.

The student had long since stopped paying any attention to his textbook, normally when he was in the 24/7 laundromat he was alone, it made sense because he only came at 11:30pm on Saturdays which made doing the laundry easier - not having to touch any of it was time saving, but now there was a couple who Charlie had to admit were very interesting. Maybe they won’t care. Maybe they’re fine with people like me. They might not even notice, the guy seems really into that toothpaste he’s putting on those clothes, but the chick keeps looking over at me like she wants me to leave.

 

Soon the hum of a second and third machine were running in the small room, Sam had moved within whisper distance of Wade, “Do you think that kid will notice your suits?” She asked eyeing the student again, and then to the bag with nine red and black spandex morph suits, she gave in - they came this late to wash those damn things and hell if some guy only alive by mexican caffeine was going to stop that - she opened the bag and pulled out the first pile of fabric and started to look for blatantly obvious blood stains.

 

He noticed, it would be hard not to with super hearing, but even if he didn’t it would have been hard not to see the spandex suits she was looking over and again covering in toothpaste, he decided that doing his laundry how he normally does wouldn’t be a risk. The girl was frowning at a raggedy mess telling the man off for not just throwing it out, she was chopping it into smaller pieces in a minute with a small knife putting the pieces back into the now empty bag. The student's machine stopped, he looked up fully from his textbook, the machine opened, he moved his hand just a bit and the pile of clothes started to hover above the washer, he flicked his hand again they moved to a dryer, he moved his other hand, the dryer opened - the clothes went in and the door closed.

“Charlie?” The girl was looking at him, and it clicked, he knew her.

“Sam! Oh my god you look so different!” He stood up to full height and hugged her, “You look actually healthy and your hair, you’ve been cutting it neater, I didn’t recognize you.”

“Yea, I’ve been eating more so now my body isn’t eating itself. Look at you you got skinnier and you’re letting you hair grow out.” Now it was her turn to hug him, “Are you still in the I.D., business?”

“Of course I am. You still doing illegal fights?” He asked looking over to the other man for a second.

“I probably will be forever, easy money.”

“You can’t stay hurt, of course you’d stay in fights. What was I thinking. Who’s that anyway?” Charlie looked over to the very tall man who was loading a third washer with the suits.

“Oh yes, Wade, his names Wade, we’re … roommates,” Wade had walked over, if Sam had learnt anything over the past few years it was that letting Wade introduce himself was never a good idea, so as they agreed she would introduce him to her friends. The problem was that the freindly amount of informality needed for this task was uncomfortable so she always had to be too formal or seem as though she didn’t really like Wade that much, “Wade this is Charlie, he was my purple guy for, probably like three years.” 

It took Wade a moment to process it, everyone had what her circle called a purple guy or you were the purple guy, at least if you wanted to be alive. However the way she treated him, it was hesitant now that he had come over. He searched his mind for any mention of this man. “Sam, was this the su-.”

“Yes, Wade he was. However you seem to be forgetting what happened after that and as you can clearly see Charlie and I though no longer do any business together, can interact without looking ready to kill each other.” She was getting worried from the way Wade seemed to be acting, she knew he didn’t think Charlie got what he deserved, and now his hand was reaching into his pocket, a pocket that could very well have a loaded gun inside.

The air was tense. She grabbed his arm making sure she held tight enough to get her point across, Wade seemed like he was going to back off. Then he took as much of a step forward as Sam’s grip on his arm would let him, “If I ever get a chance to, I won’t mind pulling the trigger.” He walked back to the dryer and started to tap on it making some sort of beat.

“New Sub?” Charlie asked raising an eyebrow at their interactions.

“I haven’t had any since you.” She sighed and leaned against one of the machines across from him, were they really going to open those wounds in a laundromat.

“So he’s what? Your boyfriend?”

“No, he’s … he’s my… roommate…” But roommate didn’t seem to be right.

“Your roommate who you sleep with.”

“Yea, and one of my best friends.”

“He knows about me, and the …”

“Yea, we met like a month after I moved out, you were my example of why I don’t trust people.”

“He hates me?”

“Yea.” This was a lot more awkward than what Sam needed, but at least Charlie didn’t seem to be digging into the scar to much.

“I’d hate me too.” He seemed like he was trying to get to something, she didn’t know where though, “I’m sorry, I know how much trust you put into a submissive now and how much it hurts when they throw off you mark in public, you had every right to do what you did.”

Sam didn’t know what to say, Charlie despite them talking about it once several years ago never really apologized for any of what happened, the only thing she could find was, “Are, are you a dom now?” That seemed the only way he could really understand.

“I haven't been a sub since you, I guess I needed to try my hand at both before I could understand what all of the rules mean.”

The Charlie that as standing in front of her wasn’t the same boy that had left her almost 5 years ago. He had matured and gained confidence he thought he never would.

The Sam that stood in that laundrymat wasn’t the same Sam Wade met 5 years ago. She had become much more trusting than 18 year old Sam would have thought sane. Or safe, no matter who you were dealing with.

Then Sam said something that once she left her aunt's house 8 years ago she thought she’d never want to say, “I,” she let out a breath, “forgive you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! And yes, I know this chapter seems really out of place, but it is important, I swear.


	3. Chapter 3

“Sam’s gone so I thought now would be a good time to give you guys the full apartment tour.”

…..

 

~~~

 

Sam walked over to the bar in the old school house, “S, what can I get you?” The guy asked, smiling he was probably already planning his bets that night around her the second he saw her. She wasn’t known to be a loser.

“How many slots can I get in tonight?” She leaned against the bar and moved her short hair from over her ear giving him a good view of her new piercing, her sixth one; she could have gotten it a month ago, but she wanted the guy in the ground first - well more of she needed his real name for the engraving.

“5, you want in all of them?” He asked, looking at the shine of new metal.

“Yea, ‘lec bill came and Wade might not get a pay out for a while.”

“I heard his next pay was going to be good though.” He finished writing down the ‘S’s on the papers and handed her over the pile and a fresh pin from a small packet. He moved his glasses up on his nose, “Have a beer on the house.”

“Yea, about that, thanks, you should really never mentioned price, maybe than we could have enough money for the bills without me needing to come here.” She was looking at the pin and than her hand, the one part of The School that was hard, “Weas. can you? I eh, I can’t.” If she could she’d never do it herself, damn self - preservation instincts it bugged her - a lot. He nodded and took her hand and the pin pressing it into her index finger until a small blotch of red formed. She pressed it to each of the papers as quickly as she could not wanting to open a second finger.

School entries are signed in blood.

 

~~~

 

“So first we have the door than.”

…..

“What you were never going to tell them what this place looked like.”

…..

“Blah good writing my ass, either way in front of you kinda to the right you have this wall thing that - I don’t know hides part of the kitchen or something i don’t really get it…”

…..

“Oh well you think it’s nice well that’s a perfect reason. And next to the door is this table that has our keys and some - what looks like phone numbers. Oh no that one’s a death threat… and that’s a church brochure. We also keep a revolver here just, you know, just in case.’

 

~~~

 

“That’s a nice helix, did you get it just to even the sides out or is it like the rest?” He asked as she opened the beer he’s given her, He saw her lips twitch up for just a moment.

“I like to keep with my tradition, Weasel,” She lifted her hand and removed it. “He brought a knife in the ring, I had to defend myself right,” She flipped it so he could see the tiny engraving J. Denson - Flip, “Can you take a break after my first fight, it’s been awhile hasn’t it?”

“So you and Wade still haven’t, uh gotten serious?”

“No, never, not with Wade, he's not really relationship material is he?”

“No, he’s not. We have half an hour before they draw the names for your first draw.”

“Sounds good.” She smiled and walked over the the side door to the back of the bar.

 

~~~

“-So that’s the kitchen, and than to your left we have our living area, two couches forming an L shape around our coffee table that has a lot of stuff on it, like wow when was the last time I cleaned this thing that taco place went out of business months ago. Then there the normal table stuff: laptops, throwing knifes, bills, a letter from the farm.”

…..

“Oh you guys don’t know about The Farm do you. Don’t have that look, it’s actually one of the nicest places I’ve been in a while, Sam’s father’ side of the family owns it, it's super nice because a bunch of us live there and they board kids in the summer. Kids like how Sam was, mutants in families who can’t deal with them, but unlike Sam, the families of those kids still love them. Instead of kicking them out to the streets when they still can’t control themselves like her aunt did.”

…..

“Oh, I’m so sorry I ruined your big backstory reveal, boo-fucking-hoo.”

 

~~~

 

This would be her last fight. By now, thanks to an ass (with glasses that the nineties didn’t even want back they were so bad) almost everyone in the building knew about the new jewelry Sam was sporting. Maybe that was way it seemed that a larger group than normal was gathered around the ‘Chem Ring’, or maybe it was the track records of the two contestants, “TWO OF THE SCHOOL'S STRONGEST. EACH HAS ONLY LOST ONE FIGHT IN THIS BUILDING. FOR BOTH THE LOSSES WERE TO THE OTHER.” The announcer was revving the crowd, a few people could be heard yelling for her to get her seventh piercing, while other started to chant her opponent's name - Grin.

They still had five minutes before betting closed, and Sam decided she would get a bit more from her secret betting she’d set up with Weasel earlier, and get rid of the man who’d ruined her perfect record, “Hey, Grin how about we raise the stakes a bit more, loser leaves The School for good.”

“You’re on bitch.”

Most of the crowd dispersed to change their bets, she couldn't help but laugh for a moment at human nature, she could finally get a new car if this went right. 

 

~~~

…..

“And The Notebook that’s all of our DVD’s, now I’ll tell you every video game we have on the media shelf - The Sims 3, Castlevania, Castlevania 2”

 

~~~

 

She lifted her right arm and gave the weakest punch she could, Grin responded with a much harder one, though it wasn’t going to be enough, “That all you got, my grandma can hit harder than that.” Which was true, for her paternal grandmother at least, she had to inherit the super-strength from somewhere, she’s got a badass grandma.

She threw another weak hit this time to his gut, though obviously she was still hitting hard from the look on his face.

He gave his all into a punch to her gut, than to her jaw, she swayed, he kicked the back of her knees and she fell, she closed her eyes and let herself look as though she was out. The crowd screamed, anger and joy were beautiful mixed, she heard Weasel and felt someone who felt like him pick her up and carry her back to behind the bar. She knew she’d finally gotten a way out of the school, and probably a better payout than Saturday would bring, though if she bet on herself that night with her now damaged reputation she could probably make a good bit, and with the right show she could get back any points she’d just lost. She felt herself being put down and propped up against a wall, she lifted her hand to her jaw it was starting to hurt -a lot - it was broken, and definitely bunching, she ran her hands down her ribs; two felt cracked, they'd be good in an hour, he jaw would hurt until lunch tomorrow and probably look bad until the next day. “Damage count?” She opened her eyes, Weasel was sitting on the floor across from her, drinking what smelled like a fruity ass cocktail from what looked suspiciously like her old beer bottle.

“I don’t need to worry that I’m pregnant.”

“I’m glad you can still joke, but that’s just too far Sam, you’re not being serious are you?”

“No, I’ve just been wanting to use that one for a while. My jaws definitely be broken, but as you can tell it’s fusing pretty fast, so that’s good. And I think that I only cracked two ribs.”

“If you call an hour fast.”

 

~~~

…..

“And that was our bedroom, our second one is used for all my weapons and as our medical center.”

 

~~~

 

“An hour! What time is it?” 

“Uh just past one thursday morning. You passed out before I even got you to the back.”

“I need to get home, I told Wade I’d be home by now, he’s probably set the fucking place on fire, Sorry to cut this short but where’s my money and how much did I make.” She was starting to stand up, but quickly fell back grasping her side, she fell as though she was about to throw up, “Weas.” she started all joking left from her voice, it caught him off guard. “Weasel, I need you to get me home, NOW! Get something to drive us, I need Wade, in less than an hour or I’ll be out for more than an hour.” She was on the verge of tears, possibly the weakest he’s seen her, her was scared.

“I’ll hotwire a car as soon as you tell me what’s going on.”

“My,” groan of pain, “appendix,” breathing, “is going to burst, in about two hours, I can’t perform the surgery myself, and I can’t get out of here on my own.” There were the tears, several days of pain for a normal person being brought through at once, “Weasel, I’m dependent on you now, okay?” She grabbed his arm with strength no one in any condition should have, and looked him in the eye, he knew she was not joking in anyway, “Completely, please help me…”

 

~~~

 

“You want to know a little secret guy’s - I really think I’m in love with Sam. I think I might ask her out for like real after my birthday.”

…..

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

…..

“Just gonna stay silent huh, well I’m going to take a nap on the couch, maybe this will be the last night I have to spend with a Silent God watching over me instead of sweet Sam Reed.”


	4. Chapter 4

NOTE- Somehow something happened, through the many edits chapter 3 underwent, Weasel says that it is Thursday morning, it is not, it's one a.m. MONDAY. I'm very sorry if anyone overanalyzed and noticed the several missing days, like I did when I was back checking some plot things for chapter 6.

 

~~~~~~  
“Wade! Wade! Sam needs you, like right fucking now!” He was half asleep, he assumed that Sam had stayed the night with someone else, and was very confused when his arms dealer came running over to him, Sam curled into him moaning.

“Oh my god. What the fuck did you do to her Weasel?” His arm was already twitching to slap him, when Sam started to make words through her pain.

“W’sn’t Wehs … appendix … bursting, need to out.” As soon as she finished the last word another shot of pain ran through her and her hand squeezed Weasel shoulder much to hard.

“What do I do, I need to put her somewhere before she rips off my arm!”

They heard what sounded like a sorry, than Wade finished processing. If her appendix had burst then she'd be done and stuck in a bed for a week, mostly unconscious. “This way, get her on the table in here,” He practically ran to their second bed room, “Get her everything but her underwear off, then gag her with this.” He handed him a piece of black fabric.

“I don’t-”

“I’ve done this 5 times, we know what we’re doing by now. Just do what I tell you!”

“Guys I’m gonna hu, vomit…” She sounded drunk, and sick. Wade threw her a bucket. She quickly emptied her stomach, mostly acid and her last drink, everything else she’d eaten that day had already be used completely by her general body needs and her overworked healing factor.

“Sam?” Weasel had moved to be at eye level with her, he noticed how she, just hours ago, was so full of life and her beautiful teal blue eyes now looked almost dead, “Can you get yourself undressed.”

She shook her head and may have tried to say something, but it just came out as proof of her pain. Wade was moving things around and mumbling to himself. Weasel started with her shirt, the movement from her arms seemed to be too much grabbed a nearby knife and cut it, he found he bra much easier, just hooking at the back, under normal circumstances he would have spent more time looking at her chest as anyone would the first time they see someone's, especially when their are many small scars covering each breast, but between Wade yelling at himself to hurry up and Sam trying to cover them he decided not to find out and went down to her shoes.

In a few minutes Sam was laying on the table they used when they needed to cut open their abdomen or chest. Wade was moving a stool over to her, “Weasel-?”

“Wade, I told him not to, it’s -”

“Trust. Okay then, let’s get this done before your appendix goes boom,” Wade mimed and explosion with his hands, before picking up the scalpel he’d gotten and pressed into her right side.

 

~~~

 

She was in their actual bed, there was natural light shining in through the window, she wasn’t in immediate pain, though as soon as she moved she could feel the ache in her abdominal muscles, she let herself fall back to her back and instead checked her jaw again, most of the extra bone had been destroyed however it was still painful to the touch, “Oh, hey, Sleeping Beauty woke up without a kiss.” She turned her head to see Wade sitting at the edge of the bed, in full costume.

“Mut, day iss irt?”

“Wednesday.” A second voice in the room. Weasels voice. He was there.

“Don’t worry, you’ve woke up a few times, then passed out again.” At least Wade was providing some comfort, though looking at her hand she knew she hadn’t eaten much those two days. She looked down to her toes, and while checking to see how many of those gross calorie bars she’d be eating she noticed the bare chest and immediately crossed her arms, shame of her scars coming back now she wasn’t worried about dying. “Really Sam, he’s seen me, I think you're just doing it out of spite now.”

“Maybe I am. I’m in no mood to open up that night with people I don’t like.”

“You don’t like me?” Weasel seemed the only one that found this to be new news.

“Not a lot. You're just good stress relief before a fight. Also how much did I make getting out of The School.”

“4 thousand plus the 600 with the other 3. I gave it to Wade already.”

“Never give him my money.”

“I put it in the safe. Also he told me the full story, it sounded great, I wish I was there. The plan did work, I’m proud of you, I was thinking we could get a pair of fake passes. and go to Mexico next month. You should really go, Glasses.” Wade seemed excited which made Sam excited, Weasel got up and left, they hadn’t given him much choice, but still Wade was happy he hadn’t said anything, the next few days had to go perfectly.

“Wade, I’m not keeping you from a job, am I?”

“No I just got back from watching the ex-nanny, god he is boring, he went grocery shopping and you know what he bought, kale - I had to watch a guy buy kale and eggplant happily.”

“Oh, that’s awful, kale is just wrong, so is eggplant.” She wasn’t lying kale was lettuce with all the good parts taken out like the water content.

“Here have a calbar, I think you lost 10 pounds.” He handed her a green wrapped bar, somehow - she didn’t want to know how - contained 3000 calories of protein in 50 grams food and tasted like a gym sock. Wade had started to peel off his suit, yanking the arms off, and rolling the fabric down, exposing his well toned upper body, as well as his mared skin. She looked at him while trying to keep her body from rejecting the foul tasting bar.

“You’re really pretty.” She said propping herself up with one arm, her muscles feeling stretched and pulled tight, though it was only mildly uncomfortable now, the amount of pain she expected after getting out of that place. She meant what she said, she always said what she thought.

“You’re the pretty one, yours have a damn good story,” Wade got back on the bed, well on her; he was straddling her knees, he ran a finger over one of the long scars over her right breast, her body flinched away for a moment. She dropped the empty Cal-Bar wrapper and ran her free hand over one of the larger blotches on his chest, his body flinched back, “Mine came from being stupid enough to trust a creepy government suit. And I look like someone ran me through a fire.”

“At least people will believe you’re a burn victim. What do I pass this off as?” She smiled, this was normal fighting over who looked worse, then she pointed to the six inch scar on her face.

“The Beauty Mark of a Princess?” He suggested before pressing a kiss to her lips. She returned the kiss.

“Stalemate?” She suggested. She new they could gone on like this for hours and she did not think she would ever get him to shut-up if she fell asleep, which she thought she might.

“Impasse?” He returned.

“Agreed.” They spoke at once. Wade smiled, and ducked his head down to take a nip at her collarbone, she moaned, but also moved and the dulling pain came back.

“Mrm, not yet.” Instinctively she moved one hand to shove Wade back, but her hand hit empty air, he had already moved to sit on her knees.

“Sorry I shouldn’t have.” He had a small hint of sadness in his voice that Sam would have picked up on if her mind wasn’t already working on getting to the one thing Wade was hoping to avoid.

“It’s been two days it never took this long to go back before has it?”

“Sam?” His voice seemed small.

“Yea?” She had half an idea of what was coming, because it wasn’t going to be new news, it was going to be the second time the news would come from Wade, and the fifth time it happened.

“It,” He took in a breath, “wasn’t just your appendix monday night.” He knew from the last time she’d ask him to leave. He moved so he was sitting on the edge of the bed, “The gut punch you took caused several your of your organs to become damaged. Your body had a miscarriage, it kinda broke open and… into your body. I had to take out most of your organs.” He started to stand, she took a grab at his arm.

“Stay.”

He did. He sat back down, and when she tugged his arm he laid down beside her. When she curled herself into his chest he wrapped one arm around her. He could feel her ragged breathing and he held her a bit tighter.

They both knew she was becoming more trusting, more open with people.

They both knew why.

Though they would never say it.

She didn’t want to change anymore, it didn’t feel safe, and she put so much work into being safe.

He was glad, he liked seeing her emotions, even the bad ones. He sent a silent thought to whatever could hear him - Don’t let anyone hurt her, please.

 

She didn’t cry, even before she was attacked she wasn’t a crier. Now after 7 years of proving herself in fights, she couldn’t cry properly, instead she breathed heavily, and unevenly, her eyes watered but didn’t actually tear. She laid in Wade’s arms and heaved through her conflictions, and self hate.

She should have known. How would she had known? It wasn’t like any part of her life was normal. She always found out too late.

She thought many times of being a mother, giving a child and then teenager the love, support, and answers she didn’t get from her aunt, but what kind of mother could she be?

And if she did have a child. Well her mutation was the reason she was practically homeless for 2 years, yes she would never kick her child out the house for being different, but unless you could sell yourself as a hero, or hide on a farm in Caroline County, you didn’t have many options, most of the time your job was crime.

 

Wade was never one for comfort, Sam didn’t seem to hate him when he messed up at least. For a good while Wade didn’t move, he felt bad that he was happy, not because of the miscarriage, but because even though she swore to him that a blindfold was her final show of trust, he knew that this was when she was most vulnerable. That letting him see her cry, asking him to stay, was more than she thought possible when they met four years ago.

After some time she quieted, her breathing regulated, she had fallen asleep. Wade wondered if she’d remember when she woke of.

Yes, yes she will.

But for the next hour Wade didn’t worry about what would happen she woke up, he took a guess from experience that she’d disappear until friday, say nothing about it, and tell him to just leave the past week alone and not to mention it, ever.

He took advantage of her peaceful sleep. He ran his fingers through her hair, it was the longest it had gotten since she was nineteen, even though that wasn’t very long the longest strands weren’t more than half a foot long, still if she stayed long enough he’d cut it for her. Her hair was soft, it was always soft, it reminded him of the milkweed fluff he had played with the summer he was seven, when his family had rented a cabin, it was the last season he had with his mother, by October she was gone and by December he father might as well been a before shot for a PSA about alcoholism.

On a few occasions before he’d thought about parenthood, he was sure he’d make an awful father, Sam though - he’d seen her with her cousins children enough to know she’d make a wonderful parent. He was the problem. He was always the problem.

He started to think about his mother, couldn’t remember a whole lot about her, though what he remembered of what she was like, painted a picture of a perfect mother like you’d see in a children’s show, as for her looks he couldn’t remember them clearly, he was to young when the cancer took it’s ugly toll, he did however have a single family photo from when he was just born, she was beautiful, long blonde hair, brown eyes that were still so full of life, just a bit of tanned color to her flawless skin, from his memories of her father height and the photo he knew she was below average height by just a bit. Than she started to get weaker, and then came the diagnosis, they - he had the last good summer.

He’s been trying to fix his life, but every time it was going well, looking up, something had to come along and ruin it. He knew she’d say no if he tried to advance the mess of a relationship they had.

 


	5. Alone

 ~~~

{ _ She’s gone. _ }

**[She’s definitely halfway to Henderson by now.]**

{ _ I’d say more. _ }

**[She probably won’t be back.]**

{ _ She cried in front of you and you acted like you were scared of her. _ }

**[She’s scared herself because of you.]**

{ _ Your an idiot. _ }

**[You’re going to be alone forever.]**

{ _ Even if she wanted to be with you she’s still going to die in sixty some years. _ }

**[They all will.]**

{ _ And don’t even try to promise yourself… _ }

**[She’s not Wolvie…]**

{ _ She’s not you… _ }

**[You could kill her a lot quicker than** **_killing_ ** **you.]**

{ _ Because you can’t die. You just get stuck in some sort of purgatory for a while and wake up just as ugly as before. _ }

**[How could she like you anyway, you’re a repulsive fucking corpse.]**

{ _ Also can we talk about how you couldn’t even protect her from Grin, remember how she pushed you away. _ }

**[HER! What about your kid? You were too much of a wuss to stand up to her and her batshit plan.]**

{ _ ‘I’ll throw my next fight with him’ she said ‘It’ll be a great payout if I play it right’  yea great, _ }

{ _ You don’t shoot blanks, at least. _ }

**[You never know until it’s too late.]**

{ _ That’s what the third time. _ }

**[Third time he’s known, it’s probably been more.]**

{ _ Yea, definitely more. _ }

It didn’t matter what he did. They wouldn’t leave. If she was gone they were worse. He had tried everything he could think of though their incessant chattering, screaming at them would just make them laugh, he couldn’t run from them, and he couldn’t shoot them out. Sam’s presence helped to ward them off or at least make the play nice, they convinced him to talk to her for the first time, but if he was alone they’d vocalize his doubts endlessly.

Well there was one thing that helped - Dr. Feather, so once he found her note saying that yes she was going to Henderson for a day or two and no she wouldn’t try something stupid, promise, he found Dr. Feather and everything the voices would bring up he’d talk about.

“So last time I said that the pain was getting a bit better, yea I got kinda blown up three weeks ago. It’s not getting better.”

“How did you blow up?”

“Not important.”

“You don’t remember, do you.”

“No.”

“Do you want to talk about how you feel when you can’t remember?”

“No, I only forget when I have to regenerate wolvie style.” 

“What about the girl, how’s that going?”

“Which one?”

“Sam.”

“I think I need to end whatever we have.”

“Why do you think that? Last time you talked of asking to become actual partners.”

“Yea, I did, then shit hit the fan.”

“Could you elaborate?”

“Well do you remember the thing with Grin a few months back?”

“Yes.”

“Well, she didn’t want me to do anything about the prick. Said she came up with a great plan. You see she was wanting an excuse to stop going to The School, low pay outs and you never knew what kind of mutant you might met because it’s open territory. So she came up with a plan. She’d pay all the bills with winnings from the School, waiting to get a match up with Grin, then because of their history she would have Weasel place a huge bet on Grin taking the match, and 5 minutes before the fight she’d rev up everyone in the place by suggesting the loser never comes back to the place. Grin has a ego the size of the sun. He’d take it. And she'd throw the fight, huge pay out. Then she’d go find the gloating bastard and give him a second smile, and take all the cash on him. She’d have her way out and her revenge. So monday night the electric bill comes so she goes out to The School, by this point she’s getting tired of waiting for their names to come up on their own, so she bribed the bartender/draw guy/FWB with a BJ to get them together in their last fight that night and he put the money against her, just like they planed.

‘So she’s on her side of the ring, by now thanks to bartender Weasel everyone in the place knows about her new jewelry, and of course with their past the announcer guys trying ever harder to get last minute bets going, so she yells out something along the lines of ‘loser doesn't come back to The School’, everything goes well she throws the fight by handing off bad punches, take one to her face and one to her gut, she pretends to fall unconscious and she almost is from what Weasel said.

‘He takes her back behind the bar and she hurts a bit, but still joking until she tries to move, than it feels like her appendix is gonna burst, and she figures it’s that because she was feeling a bit sick lately, so she freaks out because she’ll be out of commision for a week, she scares Weasel into hotwiring a car and getting her home. By this point he’s carrying her, I get angry, they explain enough for me to get the jist.

‘When I start chopping her open, I realize that it’s not her appendix, she’s bleeding internally, well kinda. I have to gut her and she passes out, she in and out of consciousness for a few days. When that bastard hit her he used most of his strength - all 15 tons of lifting power, you know what happens to a two month old fetus when you apply that much pressure at once even if their mom has super strength. 

‘Officially it’s called a miscarriage. Up side I got to see her cry, which even though she never said I always felt like that was really her last trust stage, but now she’s up in Henderson trying to get back to her normal and work out her anger by chucking around old cars in the yard, her note said she’d be back friday morning, she hasn’t missed a single holiday in four years, it’s nice, but weird, I didn’t really have a birthday since I was 5.”

{ _ When your mom died from fucking cancer, _ }

**[And your dad became even more of an abusive alcoholic.]**

“After fourteen years I actually forgot the exact date. I had to go unlock my real passport, September 25, the first year we were still new, she just moved in so maybe 5 months of knowing each other, I come back, she tells me that it’s my choice tonight and we order pizza, anything though still didn’t mean anything at that point though - she was not losing sight that night.”

“And you think she won’t want a relationship to start after the loss of your mutual child.”

“Yes.”

“Anything else?”

“Sometimes I really want to just die already. I not helping anyone, and no one should care about me, it never goes well for the people I get close to, my life is a curse, a prison. Sometimes I think about how everyone I know will die and I’ll still be here. The rest of the human race will be gone and I’ll be alone. In a billion years everything will die on earth  and I’ll enter an endless cycle of death, than four billion years after that the sun will consume earth and I’ll just regenerate to die again in a few minutes. I brought this upon myself, my fate, my suffering, I caused it. I don’t deserve to be happy, and much less have any right to try to bring someones into my hell.” Wade stood up and looked at the couch where his therapist sat. “Thanks for listening, Dr. Feather.” Wade took of the glasses and put them in the coffee tables drawer, then he lifted the pillow up and pulled of the jeans and threw them into the laundry basket and he put the pillow with the hand drawn permanent marker smile back in his closet. He walked to the store room and moved a few boxes around until he found the one with the perfectly centered label - small grenades - over the label _ lightbulbs  _ and opened it, he removed one of the boxes and opened that.

Wade stood there for a while looking at the small oval in his hand, he switched the hand that held the small piece of metal. 

{ _ It won’t help any. _ }

**[It really won’t, you’ll just wake up somewhere down river.]**

“I just want it to stop for a while.”

{ _ What about Sam, do you have any idea how much stress you’d put one her? _ }

“She doesn’t need to know.” 

~~~

That was what he told himself, that he just needed a break (no that wasn’t ‘just a break’ 2 weeks ago), and that he’d be back before Sam, thus she’d never know. He set his feet against the cement of the bridge, looked both ways - no one was coming. He pushed off, turning so his back would hit the water first.

When he felt the impact of the river he squeezed his hand around the grenade and hugged it as close to his chest as he could.

He felt the pain of being ripped apart, then for once he felt normal. His unending pain was gone along with the endless chatter of his voices, and he knew that finally he could be stable enough, long enough to figure out his life. 


	6. 7 Univited ( And Unwelcome) Guests

He woke up in the river around six the next morning, his entire right leg hurt more than normal, and he decided that he would definitely be taking a one of the horse tranquilizers when he got home.

He was feeling as close to normal as he could, though he wasn’t sure how much longer those drugs would be working, Wade could only hope that his bone finished moving around and re-shaping by the time that happened, it was noon now, he planned to order takeout in a few more hours.

{ _ Hey, you haven’t checked your phone since you got back. _ }

“Shit.” and he looked around for where he even put his phone, he knew it wasn’t in the river, he’d checked twice before jumping. He found it, for some reason he could no longer remember - in the bread bag. There were 2 messages from Sam - one saying she got to Henderson; a habit she started and insisted he also take part in, and one asking if Nigel could stay with them next break, that was nothing new, he practically spend the last summer with them under the pretense that he was looking at universities, and getting a feel for the city, because that’s what unsupervised sixteen year olds do in New York - Wade sent back a yes.

What worried him was that he had gotten 16 texts and 3 voice mails from Peter, who seemed to care more about his emotional state than Weasel had, despite not wanting to leave the apartment until Sam was better, but that was Weasel, cares more about trying to get a better chance with the girl than his  _ absolute bestest friend in the world. _

The newest voice mail said that he was coming over that night to check-up on him, “Fuck.”

A while latter Sam sent a ‘Great’ and a video of her cousin's child, showing off a new gymnastics routine, and Wade made a plan.

An hour latter Wade was sharpening  a few knives that had gone dull, halfway hoping that Peter wouldn’t show up when someone knocked. Well that thought went down the drain. He walked to the door and figuring it was Peter opened it without checking or grabbing their revolver. 

7 people stared back at him. 3 women, 3 men, and a teen who fit the description Sam gave him the other day.  ¨Oh, you guys came back! Normally people say they'll be back, but they never do. Come in, it looks a bit like rain, would you like pancakes?”

“We are here to save a young lady who appears to have made ill-dealings with dark forces, is she here?” One of the  older men said craning his neck to look inside, “Saul, are you sure this is the correct place? I see nothing here that shows proof of of a lady living here?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Looking for Sam? She’s gone, won’t be back until tomorrow, maybe really late tonight. She lives here, for now, maybe she’ll move out in a month or two, if everything goes well.” Wade said wandering back to the kitchen, the group stepped in close to the door, but far enough in they weren’t standing on the plastic tarp just in the doorway. “Of course that they both like each other enough to form a bond, so Peter will need to not be morally repulsed by her. Beer?” He held a bottle up in his hand.

The man from before spoke again, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21.”

“Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’” With that Wade opened the bottle and took a drink. And walked back to the sink where he was sharpening his knives.

“Matthew 26:27-29.”

“Yes Saul. Sir you know scripture, seen the truth and yet you do not follow it.” One of the other men spoke, he was holding a bible very close to his chest. All 7 seemed thoroughly confused.

“Like you I cherry pick what parts I follow. Shit.” He sliced his finger open on one of the blades then laughed, “Guess that one's sharp enough. No I didn’t forget Pete said he come over, it doesn't matter, won’t be the weirdest thing he’s walked into.” 

**[7 weirdos performing an exorcism…]**

{ _ I think it would make his top 10 though. _ }

**[Top 5]**

“I do not ‘cherry pick’.” The third man spoke, taking step closer to Wade.

“Huh, sorry. The Voices, were trying to tell me this would be the weirdest thing my buddy could walk into.”

“He asked what you meant by cherry picking? What parts of god's word do you suggest we don’t follow?” One of the women challenged.

“Do you use the ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.’ line?”

“Yes, it’s Leviticus 18:22, though that’s not my preferred translation.” The man clutching the bible said seeming to be proud, knowing the different translations, and having favorites.

“So you follow teachings from The Book of Leviticus?” Wade turned his back to them, working on another knife.

“Yes.” Said Bible Man.

“Ever eat lobster? What about crab? Do you wear poly-cotton blends? Ever ate fat? How many days did your mothers not go to church after giving birth to each of you? I doubt it was 33 or 66, I’d put money on it was the next sunday.”

“What do these things have to do with anything?” One of the women sounded angry.

Wade spun around, six inch knife still in hand and said, “Just a few things also banned by the Leviticus Chapter of your precious little  _ Book Club Novel. _ ” He made a show of bowing, when he stood up again he saw he had an eighth guest. His eighth guest seemed to be desperately trying to conceal a mess of blue and red fabric from his other seven, “Evening Peter. I’m glad you came, I have a few warnings about tomorrow.” 

The first piece of his plan was hovering above it’s place. 

 

____________________________________

 

Thanks to everyone who has read this far. As I post this chapter DWSRASYGD has 101 hits!


	7. One Wanted Visitor

    “What did you do now Wade?” Peter said after hiding his suit in his jacket, looking over the people in the small kitchen with unfocused disinterest before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing trying to figure out how Wade continued to find himself in these nearly inexplainable situations, but thankful that he looked to be in one piece.

    “They were looking for the roommate. I let them in.”

    Peter couldn’t think of which reason on why that was a stupid idea to list first so he just stood there, Wade was a child. And children should not be given the power or free-range he had allowed. Wade continued to talk, “I hate to cut this visit short, but there are a few things me ‘n Petey need to talk about so if you guys could find some other apartment to annoy the fucking crap out of and maybe not come back,” he was shuffling the group back to the door, “ever. Have a lovely day.” He waved them goodbye. Wade turned to face the younger man, “So you been busy?” He walked over to and fell onto a couch, “How’s the whole ‘good guy’ thing going?”

    “Couldn’t have sent back anything? Really Wade? I was worried about you.” Peter folded his arms across his chest.

    “I don’t get cell service at the bottom of the river.”

“Why were you in the river?”

 _Wade's conversational skills seem apparently set to ‘be a complete ass about everything’_ Peter thought.

“I wanted a vacation.”

“So you thought you’d kill yourself! There’s this cool place called Mexico, how about you try being normal for once! Jesus! Someday you’re gonna do something stupid and you won’t heal.”

“Won’t happen, I pissed off the wrong people to be allowed to die. Stop worrying about me. And about tomorrow, you should sit down I have a few … warnings.” He motioned to the other couch.

“Warnings?”

“So you’re going to meet Sam tomorrow.”

“Sam.” Peter repeated committing the name to memory, Wade never gave much away about the identity of his roommate.

“Yes Sam, firstly she’s short - she knows, don’t remind her. Second she has super strength, I don’t know exactly how strong she is but I’ve seen her carry as much as you have. Third she has scars, she hates them so she covers them with clothes, except for one on her face from here,” Wade put his index finger to the middle of his forehead, “to here.” He ran the finger down across his nose to the lower part of his cheek, she may cover it tomorrow she may not, she’ll tell you the story when she’s good and ready, until then don’t mention and don’t stare. For your own peace of mind don’t mention the piercings - she has six, each has a reason that Spider Man would not approve of, speaking of which she doesn’t know about you other than you have powers that you got from radiation. She has anger issues, trust issues, and very little patience. I think that's it, I’ve sent you the address be there for one. I’d like you to stay a while, but it’s late and she’ll be home soon, I don’t think you want her to see that yet, do you?” He pointed to the bundle of spandex in Peter’s lap. Their first meeting had to be placed perfectly, in a neutral location, somewhere casual and open, he couldn’t risk the apartment, despite Peter showing up for Wade to give him a quick overview it was dangerous, Sam couldn’t know Peter had been there, so very quickly he shuffled the younger man out the door, gave a fortune cookie to him and pressed a twenty dollar bill to his palm closed the door and heard a muffled ‘what the heck’ though the wall, and he whispered in return, “Please just let this work, for her sake, let her have someone she deserves.” He went back to his knifes. He couldn’t help but feel as though he forgot a couple very important things. 


	8. Dish Soap

Sam was about an hour out of Henderson when she saw a station with half decent gas prices. She pulled the newly painted stolen car into the lot, there was a sign saying that it was full service and a second later a young guy - maybe sixteen came from the other side of the pumps, “What will it be?” He asked looking in the already open window.

“Regular, close to thirty as you can get it, there's an extra 3, keep the change.” she grabbed her wallet from the cup holder handed the kid 33 dollars, got out and went to the convenience store, she needed gum, a pack of cigarettes, and something with a normal person's daily calorie intake.

~~~

Half an hour later she was on the highway, two empty sandwich wrappers sat abandoned on the passenger seat, a half empty slurpee cup was in the cup holder along with a 2-day-old coffee mug. The  radio started to fuzz out and Sam started to flip through other stations, WAX-Q came through pretty clear, she turned it up a bit more. Wade's birthday present was just visible in the corner of the rear-view mirror.

~~~

Sam got out of the car in a empty parking lot, put a real 20 dollar bill in the glove box, left the original plates on the driver's seat, grabbed her to-go-bag from the back and put the bottle of dish soap from the gas station in with her clothes. She found the screwdriver in the bottom of the bag and used it to take off the fake plates which also went into the bag, she gathered the few pieces of trash from the small black car, the small black car that looked like any other small black car. She walked to a pay phone and dialed, a lady with a kind soft voice answered and Sam responded, “A black car went missing two days ago, liscense plate ADL 4692, it’s in a parking lot on Mercedes Street, tell the owner to get it to a garage, the ABS light kept coming on.” She put the phone back on the hook and got the fake transport pass from her wallet then walked onto the bus that was right on time.

~~~

The subway was crowded and noisy, in fact it was loud enough that you could barely hear the automated voice announcing the stops. After elbowing her way out of the cramped car she walked like any other person would do, she looked like a one of the many anonymous faces you meet in New York City and with a quick layer of concealer on her face and a hood over her head no one would ever look twice.

She walked back to the apartment feeling much more stable than she had Wednesday, she could hear Wade in the bathroom taking a shower and singing (terribly) what sounded like The Circle Of Life, or he was in severe pain. Probably the singing though. Sam went to the bedroom dropped her bag on the bed took out the dish soap, and tossed it to the middle of the bed, took the clothes and walked them to the laundry bag in the kitchen, then put the plates in the second bedroom. Then she waited for Wade.

Five minutes later he showed up, and in normal Wade fashion for the apartment - completely naked. Well he had a towel in one of his hands, but that was doing nothing. Though Sam didn’t mind much, after a while she had gotten used to the topographical map that was his skin, and after more time she came to find the ever changing canvas of Wade absolutely, completely, fully beautiful, she could remember spending many a long night mesmerized by the ever changing, sporadic pattern of the welts and ridges. What she wasn’t as much aware of was how he had done the same to her, either watching while she slept, a black eye would fade back to perfect pale skin like a time lapse video or how a split lip would fuse back to smooth soft pink skin. And some nights he would just watch as her chest would rise and fall following, finding new paths in the criss-cross scars on her chest, sometimes he would run his fingers ever so lightly along them knowing that the fact she let him even when she was awake was a privilege no one else had, but with that privilege he knew that there was one that he would avoid. She knew exactly what cut was the one to cause mutation, it was the last one the bastard had inflicted on her and she knew it should have killed her. He also knew that even though she’d never told him, sometimes she wished that when the blade sliced through the skin over the upper left of her chest, broke through the bones and sunk into the constantly moving muscle, sometimes she wished she had died in that alley, that she was just as average as her aunt had raised her to believe, because than the next three years of her life would have never happened. 

They knew everything about the other except for how they really felt. Wade knew how he felt and decided that because of his feelings they could not continue. She was pretty sure she knew how she felt and didn’t care about 20 years, 10 years, or even 5 years into the future, she just needed another month to be sure that Wade was truly what she wanted, even if that meant a stop being enacted within the week.

“Good morning!” He smiled and lifted her up to kiss her, she wrapped her legs around his waist and rested her hands on his shoulders, she smiled back.

“I got you Ajax.” She whispered into his ear as excited people in movie romances often whisper surprises to each other.

He gave her a nearly bone crushing hug, “Really? Where?” If he still had eyebrows one would be raised.

She nodded and whispered, “Go see for yourself. In the bedroom. ” He swung her down, planting her feet back to the floor and practically skipped down the hall, she could barely contain her laughter, it was easier to hold in laughter after someone expertly throws dish soap at your head, then immediately upgraded his weapons to knifes. He threw a few knifes then changed back to whatever was laying around, purposely missing target if it was anything that could do damage, she took to grabbing and throwing the items closest to her as she dodged the shirts and dirty spoons as they worked their way down the hall and into the kitchen then in the living room, where they used couches as cover and threw lose clothes and empty DVD cases around . Sam was waiting for the next projectile when Wade silently padded over to the other side of her couch and jumped it, pinning her down to the floor, getting her down wasn’t the hard part, it was keeping her down. 7 years in fights and being able to carry 15 tonnes wasn’t much of a match for Wade even if he was more than a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier she still managed to flip them over. However she still weighed 104 pounds, and Wade rolled them again, they knew that without either going at full force they be stuck tumbling around all day so Sam took a different approach.

First she weaseled her arms free then quickly pulled him down and into a rough kiss, they could hear the clank of teeth, Wade’s hands slid up her sides then back down and under her loose t-shirt, he slid his hand over the already firm nubs as she let out a low moan when they took a breath. One of her hands trailed down the muscular pane of his stomach, he grabbed it and pinned it back to her side and smirked down, “Later, tonight I’m going to get back at you for the soap.” She smiled, memories from passed night's flashed through her head, and flipped them back so she was hovering over him.

Sam dropped her head so that her face was inches away from his  and whispered, “Who says I’ll let you? Are you just assuming I’m over … well, you know.” She stood up, maybe making some sort of weird joke about their dead child (she did the math and it was definitely his) to mess with him was a mean thing to do, but it was fun to see his face fall.

“Oh fuck, are you still upset.” He stood up and pulled  he into a hug, encasing her tiny frame with his much larger (and still naked) arms and torso, “I’m sorry I forgot, I forget a lot of things don’t I,” he stopped, she was shaking and if anyone else was there they would think it was crying, Wade knew better, she was laughing, “Are you fucking with me, oh you are going to get it tonight.”

“It was too tempting. Do you want some help with your little buddy?” She asked moving herself a little bit away from his chest.

“I’ll get it, you need to do something with your face, we smeared your make-up.”

“Yeah and I should probably put on clean clothes.” She pulled away from him and left for the bedroom to find the mentioned clean clothes. They both had two different to-go-bags incase they had to leave the apartment quickly, but knew they’d be coming back, one had clothes, money, i.d.’s and other simple necessities that could last a week in the states, the other was packed to last a month and work outside of the country. However she hadn’t re-packed her short-time bag properly and had been wearing the same underwear and socks since, well whenever Wade had redressed her in the two day period she was unconscious, sure she showered at the farm, and hand washed the clothes, but they wouldn’t feel clean until they went in a washing machine. He went back to the bathroom.

Sam found a old pair of skinny jeans, meaning they were a size smaller than what she wanted to be and a well-fitted off the shoulder shirt, and a bra that  would bring her up to a b-cup, instead of boyish flatness. She put on the outfit and looked in the full length mirror - if her being sweating and bloody in a shirt that’s 8 sizes too big could turn him on he was in for one hell of a day. She pulled the front of the top up a bit just to make sure no one could see the raised, lighter lines on her chest, then she went to the bathroom to fix her face.

Wade who could be best described as impulsive and sporadic, had set her makeup on the counter and was holding a pair of scissors, that was when she noticed for the first time that it had been over a week since she had cut her hair, and was uncomfortable touching the back of her neck and starting to fall into her eyes, “Want a trim?” She was going to miss this when she enacted their stop, but she could hope that it would be just as natural when they were able to give the mess of their relationship a name, and she could introduce him as her boyfriend instead of ‘roommate-best-friend-who-I-also-have-sex-with’. That would be nice.

~~~

45 minutes latter she had a haircut and you could never guess she had a large scar on her face or many scars on her chest. Wade had jeans and a hoodie, she’d given into the mask,  but not the gloves, and they were sitting in the back of their favorite taxi, driving to a bowling alley/50’s dinner, they’d sat in awkward silence, neither wanting to ask and Dopinder seeming to not want to start the conversation, Sam spoke up, “So any news on what happened to Bandhu? Or is he still missing without a trace?”


	9. First Impression

    Peters alarm went off. He hit snooze. It went off again. He hit snooze again. It went blared for a third time. He ignored it. And Ignored it. He couldn’t ignore it when an apple hit him in the chest. He looked at his clock and remembered what day it was - he was going to be late.

    He got dressed with clothes he found on the floor, pulled a suit over them and started to get across New York City. Peter changed in an alley and walked into the Bowling Alley like he hadn’t woken up ten minutes ago and looked for Wade.

Wade found him. Disappearing from Sam’s side and grabbing Peter’s shoulder, “Parker, I was starting to think you were a no-show!” Peter turned to his friend, Wade for once was just wearing a hoodie and cap, maybe he was having a good day for his scars, then he saw the short girl walking over to them, she fit Sams description, she held out her hand and introduced herself as Samantha Reed but to call her Sam. She was tiny, Wade had said she was short, but he must be a foot taller then her (he would later find it was only 10 inches) and Wade looked like giant, she was skinny, but he could tell she was stronger than a normal human when he shook her hand, she did have the six ear piercings, silver rings he was close enough that he could tell something was was written on them although each couldn’t be more than ⅛ of an inch wide, her hair was swedish blonde and was chopped off extremely short. The scar on her face though was nowhere to be seen, she must have covered it however when she was twisted to glare at Wade for some unknown reason he saw what looked like a patchwork of lighter skin on her chest. She was though, Peter thought, quite pretty.

  

They had gone to the counter to get shoes, Wade needed the largest size they had, Peter too, Sam could only fit the childrens size, even the smallest womens where floppy. When they went to an empty lane she told them she would score keep.

After 20 minutes of attempting to play and Wade’s whining Sam agreed to try warning them that she hadn’t played since she was ten. Wade knew what it meant, it meant that the last time she touched a bowling ball she had a normal girl's strength. After she mutated she had to learn to control the strength,what she felt was giving a normal hug could easily crush the recipients ribs, she’d broken plates while cutting meat and broken door knobs for months, she could generally control her strength nowadays, unless it was something she hadn’t been used to, never practiced after, and already required strength. She was successful at not destroying anything and soon the three were playing by rules they roughly knew, but mostly goofing around, Wade could see that Sam and Peter were meshing half decently, and also better at not throwing gutter balls then him. A few hours past without any of them noticing until Sam started to get a headache and started to feel slightly nauseous, she went through her large purse for a ER-bar, smaller than the weird swedish bars and only containing about 500 calories  a piece, but were less disgusting, and when she checked her phone she realized that it was after five, and mentioned it to the others. In a few more minutes Wade suggested dinner. Peter agreed so did Sam, they handed back to bowling shoes and crossed into the diner portion of the alley,Sam was actually impressed with how well the makeover had turned out, the alley - as it was the same one she’d gone to for her cousin's birthday was at one point dingy and stuck in the 80’s now it felt more like walking into the 50’s, the door being a time machine instead of just a way into the place.

They sat at a booth, Wade abandoned them for the bathroom. Peter sat across from Sam and watched as she ate another ER-bar, “How old are you?” She asked looking him over had had one of those faces that made him look 12 or 25 depending on the light, a break from Wade wouldn’t hurt to much, could even be beneficial, Peter wasn't ugly by any means, better looking then most of the guys she’d slept with, he was attractive really and having super-strength was always nice, she wouldn’t have to tone down as much, however she knew Wade wasn’t above making himself friendly with barely legals.

“21, you?”

“22, how long have you known Wade, he’s never heard of you mentioned you, which is too bad.” The guy was legal, they might be able to convince him to join them some night.

“Personally, 2 years, but he kinda stalked me for like a year before that.”

Sam laughed, “He stalked me for a while too, one night after work he actually followed me home and wouldn’t leave until I agreed to go out with him, I put a bullet in his head, he handed it back, but it was just a pellet gun. He’s stopped doing that at least, now that I’m making enough we don’t need to recycle.”

“Recycle?”

 _Jesus_ . _Was the guy a pink?_ Sam thought he was looking at he like she was nuts, “You take chew it back to shape and reuse it.”

“That sounds disgusting.”

“What’s disgusting?” Wade asked taking the side of the booth next to Peter.

“Chewing used ammunition so you can use it again. Also pellet guns are like, really long, why would you use that to defend yourself.” Now Sam had to wonder where Wade found this guy, was he that oblivious.

“Peter, that’s why you take a saw to the barrel.” Wade smiled, he was having a very nice day, his skin didn’t look as terrible as normal, Sam looked good, which brought hope to his plan, yes they were going to have a scene tonight, but his plan still stood. The plan he had was the best for her, and him, she’d be gone before him, the fewer memories he had the sooner the jumbled mess of his brain would forget her, Peter was a perfect candidate for Sam or Wade thought so at least. He’d just need to give Peter a little shove at the end of the night.

Peter opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. A waitress came over and placed menus down. They looked them over and when the waitress returned ordered. They talked while they waited for their food and when Wade suggested finding out whether Sam or Peter was stronger they agreed to arm wrestle only if Wade bought dinner.

“Okay.” And immediately Sam remembered that Wade was the one who had their counterfeit money that day.

“Wade, half it when you pay.” She placed her right arm onto the table, mixing money was not only safer, but Sam felt better knowing she was putting some real money back out there. Peter didn’t want to know what she meant, he was not above bending the law, well it was actually more of extortion, but still he took her hand, it was tiny and unnaturally warm compared to him. For sometime they both slowly added more pressure gauging the others strength, until Peter actually tried to shove her arm down, and he almost won, however almost four tonnes of lifting strength more would always win, and after a small struggle Sam was able to pin his arm. “So me, I guess.” She said as food was set down in front of them, “Sorry.”

“Why are you sorry, it’s nice finding someone who’s both stronger then me and doesn't want me to die.”

Wade was eating for once using appropriate cuttery too, however Sam stopped chewing swallowed quickly and looked at him, his voice there was something in his voice that was familiar, and familiar in bad way, “Peter what do you do, not for a living, but after your job at that newspaper?”

Wade saw his plan come crashing down around him, just the other week Sam had gone on about how much she wanted to wring Spiderman’s neck because he put one of her friends in prison for theft, he had warned Peter of her trust issues, and Peter wasn’t one to give out his identity but Sam was smart if he didn’t answer perfectly she might find out on her own, Wade’s plan would be in ruins, Peter would at least be hurt minorly, there goes both a friend (which he had so few of already) and when Peter was back in action he most certainly would not be kept at bay with a few hundred dollars every month, and he’d be lucky if Sam even went home that night, in all likelihood she’d probably shot out his brains and dump him in the harbor and find some drunk guy  to spend the night with to get back at him for not telling her he knew someone that she absolutely hated, and then have the nerve to make her spent the day with said enemy. Wade realized then the flaw with his plan. Wade though, being Wade decided that if no one left the diner in a bloody heap he'd let his plan continue, just give Peter one more warning about Sam.


	10. Gray Morals and Unhealthy Habits

Peter sat there for a moment petrified, ‘ _ What do I do after the newspaper’  _ he thought than Wade's voice from the night before rang through,  _ ‘Trust issues’  _ the way she had asked him already accusing him of being something bad. Something bad to her, he couldn’t tell her who he was exactly. But approximately it may work, Wade obviously hadn’t let anything about him spill, “Just a small Vigilanti, not much more then a block or two.” That was a good answer there were dozens of small time mutants trying to do the vigilante thing he must have said it convincingly enough because her face softened back and she smiled.

“Who do you protect the streets from?” Wade was about to relax, but then Sam just had to ask that question and if it was anyone else he wouldn’t have minded, but he knew she didn’t make a habit of hanging out with people who might have put her friends behind bars, and he was pretty sure Peter had.

Peter thought for a moment and tried to find as neutral of an answer as possible, “Bad people…”  _ Not a good answer Peter, you dumbass. _

__ “Are prostitutes, and illegal fighters ‘bad people’?”

“Not usually.”  _ Only if the fights leave the rings and the girls stop breathing. _

__ “Where do you work?”

“South Bronx.”

“Keep out of Manhattan.”

She went back to her food, Wade could breath again and Peter had to wonder just who Sam was friends with, he knew she fought to make a living - literally, that was just about the one piece of information Wade had bestowed upon him before last night, but prostitutes. That was a bit harder, he could figure that she had close friends who were courtesan. He was close.

They ate in mostly silence, Wade tried to desperately force conversion a few times, no one was bleeding and he knew from her voice she had believed Peter, mostly because Peter didn’t lie too much, Peter was thankful for eating with Wade and Sam they both seemed to eat more then even him, he knew Wade healing factor let him eat terribly and made him need to eat more, he assumed Sam superstrength acted the same, providing she’d eaten that ER bar something he knew from medical research had about 500 calories -  a meal for a normal person. They weren’t normal, but he felt normal for once, most of the people he spent time with were just regular people or had such obvious ability you could see the from a mile away. After they paid, and Sam laid into Wade because she didn’t like how many fives Wade was paying with - whatever that was about, and just before they left Peter as kindly as possible asked if Sam could go watch for the cab, she smiled - Peter found she had nice smile, “I wanted a smoke anyway.”

“It’s not good for you.” Wade mumbled and as she was walking away she turned raised an eyebrow asked him if they were going to kill her laughed for a moment and left. “I only wish she wouldn’t do that, I know it won’t kill her.”

“I want my money Wade.”

“I know give me a second.” He started to rummage in the backpack he had next to him, “Will you accept a pistol with kitten stickers.”

“Wade, I don’t want your roommates weapons I want my money, May’s rent is due tomorrow.” Peter hurried trying to avoid the attention of the waitstaff or other patrons, he threw a quick glance to the door, he could just make out the shadow of someone as they walked past the door, but Sam hadn’t come back for some unforeseen reason or more of some cosmic power decided the fucking with him was the best pastime.

Wade’s hand stopped, Aunt May and as he lived with her, Peter’s rent was paid monthly, but Wade had pawed over ‘rent money’ just last week, “Peter, what was last week's money for if this is your rent?”

“When you move into a new apartment you need first and last month's rent.”

“Where you moving, May seems to like the Bronx, and no ones died in your building?”

“I’m getting my own place in Brooklyn, and if you don’t want your ugly ass in jail, you’re going to give me the money.”

“My money's going to rent?”

“Yes.”

“Newspaper goes to groceries and shit?”

“Yes.”

Wade placed nine bills in Peter's hand, he wouldn’t give Peter light-gray-moral-standing Parker his counterfeit bills, “You like Sam?”

He shrugged.

“Well, I think she’d go out with you tuesday. And that was my pistol, Parker.”

“You’re crazy, I’m going to go home Gohem checks his mail box early.” He walked back through the bowling alley and back to the street.

Wade went out and found Sam feild stripping her cigarette, the paper was rolled and thrown down a grate and the filter was shredded before following it. The taxi she had called came, Wade said that Peter was walking home.  

 

 

~~~~~~~

 

I'm very sorry for anyone who has actually read this far and had the live through the long wait, but thank you for sticking with this mess for so long and updates soon be coming regularly again.         

****


	11. Saturday Breakfast

Sam awoke half curled into and half on top of Wade, she shifted, pulling the blanket back over them, she wanted to prolong that moment, the heat coming from Wade with how completely solid he was and the shift of his arm to lay more across her back and the soft yet heavy winter blanket. There was sunlight shining into the room she could feel it over her exposed hand, she didn’t need to worry about the fight latter, or decisions about their relationship, but all good moments must come to an end as Wade started to mindlessly trail his fingers along her back.

 

~~~

Megan shifted in her bed and felt the dull pain from recently rehoused nerves coming out of the morphine numb of the night before. There was tray next to her bed with breakfast on it. Well what the hospital deemed breakfast. She looked at the clock, Steve should be getting there soon with better food. She reached out with her left hand and grabbed the T.V. remote and flicked through the channels until she found some bad medical drama and started muttering the parts that were wrong.

~~~

 

Wade's hand trailed around her shoulder blade, generally skilled - avoiding the tiny scar both the first and second time his hand trailed, slowing letting Sam drift back to sleep, it was on the third time the tips of his fingers dragged over the pale expanse of her back they managed to find the small piece of raised skin, it was no more than a quarter inch in length, but it was raised and large enough for Wade's sleepy hand the catch on it and in that moment the entirety of the form curled into him became as rigid as stone, breath stopped and a hand almost grabbed another, for about five seconds neither him nor her made a move, then Sam pulled herself away, stood up and made way to the bathroom for a shower. Wade padded to the kitchen and started to pull food from the fridge for a full breakfast, East House held  one huge tournament a  year for house title, after three years breakfast had become a tradition once she would get this far into the tournament, he cooked food for a small army and listened to the shower.

 

She came back about fifteen minute later already dressed for the gym,with her bag for the night already packed, “I'm going to head in early - catch up with some of the guys plan out some bets for the next few weeks, scare the fresh meat a bi- Oh you made food.” 

“Don't I normally?” He said peeling  six pancakes from the towering stack already on the small kitchen table and putting them on a plate with about half a pack bacon.

Sam put down her gym bag, circled the table and sat down, “Yeah, you do.”

He sat down next to her and they both ate in silence for a few minutes. Wade would put more food on her plate  when it was almost empty muttering that she needed it if she was going to work out for the afternoon. She'd nod, remembering when she'd go work out everyday fight several times each night yet barely be able to eat, slowly starving herself. Those times soon after she and her aunts had that final falling out, it wasn't until she met Wade and they were able to split rent that she was able to eat enough and actually gain weight back, she now would sometimes manage to eat too much even for herself as a ill side effect,but while food was  precious if put in front of a lot she would scarf it down until he stomach hurt.

Several plates of food were eaten on both sides of the table, “Sorry for storming off on you, and trying to run out.’’

“I didn’t expect anything less.”

“Since we’re talking, Nate called he wants you at a group therapy thing for the program survivors, it’s Wednesday.”

“I don’t want to go to some shitty cry party full of other rejects where I’m not allowed to form a head hunting party for those ass-hats.” He grumbled pulling the whole yolk from an over sunny egg on his plate and dropped it onto her toast, something he barely registered doing until it was done, something simple he’s done so many times before - pawning the grainy center of an egg over to her, it had started soon after she’d moved in, he hated the yolk and Sam would eat anything you put in front of her, the early days  of their whatever they were, when she was worse skin and bones, always tired always hungry.

“I already told him you were going.”

“I’ll be a freak show I’m not going.”

“Yes, Wade,” She said taking a bite of her toast, “In a room with Nate who has a metal arm, Rebeca who’s covered in burn scars, Will who grows horns from his back, Mac who spontaneously freezes himself and Jake who permanently floats at least slightly. A room with Beca.” She put down her fork and took her plate to the sink, where she looked on in horror at what seemed like every dish, pan, pot, plate, bowl and utensil they owned was sitting on the counter dirty.

“Bec’s is going?”

“Of course.” She mumbled  still staring at the mess in shock now taking in the flour on the floor, broken egg (shell and all), and the pancake dough inexplicably stuck to the ceiling.

“I can wear the suit?”

“Yes.”

“Will you make me go?”

“How’d ya figure that one out?” Her lip twitched up for a moment as she found somewhere to put the plate.

“I’ll go.” He  grumbled from the table.

“Good. Wade - you made it, you clean it, and could you come early I want to put on a good practice show. I also heard there were going to be some  _ influential Russians  _ tonight, you might meet some new clients, or at the very least save your hide in the future.” She grabbed her gym bag and left, her cab was waiting for her outside of the building.  


	12. Cleaning, Joe and Counterfeit Money

Wade watched Sam leave. He looked at the mess on the table, there wasn’t much food left on the plates, or in the apartment, in fact they’d need to go buy groceries at the 24/7 after the fight. He finished the gallon of milk on the table and stood.

“Stupid agreements…” He mumbled as he started to clean out the sink so he could wash the dishes.

 

An hour later the dishes were washed and he sharpied a reminder to get groceries on his right arm. He had pulled on a pair  of mostly clean pants and an actually clean shirt. Before leaving his house he scrolled through the apps on his phone choosing the red white and blue one feeling a little bad promising not to trespass even though he probably would.

 

~~~

 

_ “Oh Dr. Smith what about your wife?” The young woman in an outfit that no decent nurse would wear to work said much to dramatically. _

_ “What she doesn't know won’t hurt her.” _

‘Well this is worse then the last one.’ Megan changed the channel - again, she could see the looming outline of her most recent bodyguard in the hall, he turned into the room holding Steve by the arm, “This guy says he knows you?”

Megan reached for her phone, “Vipper get my Dad on a face call.” About thirty seconds later a voice came back

“Yes Megan.”

“Meg? Is something wrong?” The Man's voice came from the phone,in the  video he looked tired and covered in oil, ‘ _ What in all holy fuck is he making now.’  _ She wondered.

“Joe is wrong, he won’t let Dr. Reynolds or Edwards in without hassling them for five minutes and he’s stopped Steve every time. He is excessive and if something happens I’m actually worried he’d let me die before he let a nurse in.”

“Megan, you're being silly, I can’t get rid of him right now, there’s no one to take his position, just wait until you get home.” 

“Fine.” She ended the call and threw her phone to the side, “Steve could I have my food, Joe stop being an asshole, Steve’s been here three times, and you’ve seen him at my fucking house.”

And so Steve sat next to her setting  the bag between them, she turned to  unpack the bag.

Steve was the skinny asthmatic guy who picked fights in back alleys, Megan was the girl who even down an arm would refuse help with simple tasks. They made a companionable pair, even before she was part metal, though now maybe due to age or the accident they’d become more of friends on an equal playing field than a child he never had and a responsible father for her.

She ate her breakfast while Steve asked her questions, he’d seen her the day before in recovery and that night, but he found that they had put her on quite a bit of pain killers after the surgery making her ramble about  how his blue jacket looks better then the black one then passing out.

Once she was almost finished she asked him to call Dr. Edwards.

Soon she was once again stuck with Joe who wasn’t much a conservationist and the TV with all of the wonderfulness of broadcasting options on sunday mornings.

 

~~~

Wade was watching his phone intently as he walked the back alleys of Manhattan, tuning out the sounds of poor, rough Clinton. His phone buzzed and he smiled for a moment before finding it was another Drowzie, he caught it anyway, but immediately traded it for candy.

He continued through the city eventually coming to a large apartment building, it didn’t look like what it truly was like his own shit-hole. The building he'd lived in more or less for several years was a bad as it looked on the outside, but any passerby would take this almost beautiful building to be a place of the high middle class and not concealing a counterfeit mint in a second basement.

Then again he thought about how even his apartment as small and broken and even with Mr. I-Play-Violin-At-Five-A.M. was nice at times, how the nice apartment building hid an illegal operation, how those kids who went to The Farm three hours away could do extraordinary things, how an ‘abandoned’ warehouse held betting stations for people to use while they watch people hardly able to get by people nearly die for a few hundred dollars.

He thought it funny how often things were quite the opposite of what they seemed.

He walked into the beautiful apartment building.

He thought about himself.

How he was also no exception to that rule as bad as he looked on the outside he was doing good.

He got rid of people who deserved getting rid of - no different than the other vigilantes across the world.

He started down the first set of stairs down into the trading counter.

He just preferred to be paid for his work unlike spindly barely of legal age pretty boys who  prefer to blackmail their friends for rent money.

He stood in line.

The voices started up again.

 

~~~

 

Sam was talking to a few old acquaintances, half catching up, half trying to get a sparring partner.

Chain had a new girlfriend, she sounded nice enough, they were going on four months and her two year old son  had taken to him. He’d shown her a few photos, and though the girl - Livin was her name had done a good job of hiding it,  Sam could see the old branding mark, her face was familiar as well, “ _ Jersey Wives _ ?” She questioned.

He nodded.

 

~~~

 

Megan didn’t want to go to her lab yet, she loved it and being in it, but she knew that she’d just hurt herself. She shuffled around the building looking for someone or something to occupy her, Steve invited her to the gym and she said she might be down in a while, Barnes was nowhere to be seen, Natasha and Clint had been gone for the past week.

A last hope was Banner or Allumette were also clunking around their lab. She watched out the glass of the elevator as it descended and when the doors opened she could see a familiar figure looking in a microscope, mess of auburn curls pulled back, wearing a lime green shirt, “Al, what you lookin’ at?”

“Megan.” She smiled going over to hug the younger girl, “Megan you need to see these. I think I found it!”

“Which  _ it _ would that be?” She raised an eyebrow as she walked over to the machine, Allumette quickly switched the slide for another, and Megan looked.

Cells, mutant cells, with oversized mitochondria, “I borrowed these from Hank McCoy over at Xavier's.” She switched back to the first slide “I stole this from Bruce.” 

Megan looked again, they were similar, both looked like the cells of a born mutant, not like someone's whose powers came from a bottle.

“I’ve run test after test, I have proof that he was born with the mutant-x gene.”

“One step closer to controlling ‘the other guy’.” Megan said looking at the cells on the slide, smiling, she knew how long Allumette had been working on figuring out Bruce behind his back.

“Hank, we’re kind of friends, he’s found a suppressant for himself, and working on one for some others, working with him I think we can get rid of ‘the other guy’.” She was confident and happy and talking so fast Megan could barely process the words, (with or without a codeine fuzzed brain) but there was a missing piece to Megan.

“If he was born with the other guy, as a mutant he would have been changing long before the research incident, no one’s been documented starting latter then 23 the earliest is what was it 7?”

“It’s a bit complicated, but I’ve replicated the changes almost exactly,” She had walked over to the edge of the room near the door to their quarters, “over tea?” She suggested.

Megan nodded. 


	13. Prostest

James  Buchanan  Barnes had some issues very near and dear to his heart, one of these is that people have a right to their own bodies.

James Buchanan Barnes knows very well that just about anyone he grew up with would faint if they knew what he did with his free time.

Early, earlier than even Steve had gotten up, James Buchanan Barnes showered and dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans and a black tank top, packed his backpack with his journal, a gun and a few snacks and left the tower taking the subway to the Margaret Sanger Health Center.

James Buchanan Barnes also knows the people he grew up with would faint if they saw an electric can opener - not like Tony’s talking one, just opens cans without armwork. That's probably why he doesn’t care about the people who are long dead now.

 

~~~

It’s not a decorated Sergeant of the U.S. Military, or even Captain America's weird tag-along friend that the people at the Planned Parenthood see, they see the Conditioned Hydra Assassin who keeps making the headlines with names of who he’s killed.

Well that’s what the right-wing nut-jobs see as they stand there on the sidewalk holding posters and shouting.

The people he’s walked to the front door, see someone helpful, who despite what has happened and what he’s done has started over, just as they may be about to.

And so as the people shout “Murderer!” at either one or both of them, as they throw garbage and once a rotten cantaloupe, he never doubts what he’s doing.

Bucky knows he’s in the right no matter the tale future history books tell of the pro-choice and pro-life fights he knows that choice is the right way even if those shouting bastards manage to win the war.

 

~~~

 

“Would you like someone to walk with you past those protesters, madam?” He asked the girl who had just gotten out of a taxi, and taken several steps towards the building before spotting the group of people on the sidewalk and now stood in almost a purgatory of leaving or braving the walk.

She looked up at the taller man, he looked vaguely familiar, he was missing his left arm and had a very solid prosthetic arm, he smiled for a moment. Then she remembered - she saw him at the Smithsonian, hell he had his own flippin’ wall, plus his face has been on just about everything news in the past few years, “You’re that assassin, the Winter Officer or some shit.” She took a step back.

“Actually it’s Solider, I was never that highly thought of by those commie bastards.”

“What are you doing here, who’s side are you even on.”

“For seventy years I had no say what happened to me, if I almost got my mind back I was beaten and frozen until someone needed a scapegoat for their dirty work.” She didn’t seem to have put it together, he continued, “I want to take a stand against people who think they have a say in what others do with their own bodies.”

“Choice than?”

“Yes ma’am.” 


	14. Arms and Government Facilities and Hugs, Oh My.

“So … when he bombarded himself with the gamma radiation, his mutation changed from just a different personality to a giant green rage monster?” Megan asked shortening the 10 minute explanation science into a sentence. 

“Yes! And that means that with Hank’s suppressant research we may be able to fully control the other guy.” Their tea seemed to had been long forgotten.

“When are you going to tell him?” Megan asked smiling and excited.

“Once I get some progress in the suppressants, I don’t know what I’m going to say about me spending so much time at Xaviars though.”

“Temporary teacher, they ask graduates to come back to help with new arrivals all the time, don’t they?”

“I don’t want to straight up lie now.”

“Hank wants your input on some biological theory he’s dreamt up.” She shrugged, “It’s not actually a lie, technically speaking, Hank was the one who jumped down the mutation-suppressant rabbit hole in the first place.”

“True. Megan, shouldn’t you still be in the hospital, with IV’s and censers in you, and  knowing you - bolted to the bed?” She asked just realizing that her operation was only yesterday.

“Yeah probably.”

“Megan did you sneak out of the goddamn hospital again?”

“No. Edwards and Reynolds said that if I really wanted to go home and if I didn’t do anything stupid  _ and _ call them if anything feels wrong - I could go home, then I could fire ‘Who’s-Captain-Fucking-America-Joe’.”

 

~~~

 

Charlie likes girls, he really likes submissive little blondes with hair chopped short, eyes a shade of blue that lead people to think they wore coloured contacts, whose skin rivalled Snow White in hue yet had scars patterning their chests.

Yes, that's what Charlie would like to have collared, to have on his arm when he went to sex clubs.

He hated her, she was a in-cooperable  bitch who left him for no good reason. She had a temper and mood swings, sometimes he wanted her dead. 

He hasn’t seen her in years.  _ Maybe she is dead,  _ he thinks, maybe she’s in one of those government facilities they put mutants in, where they did experaments on mutants that rivaled the Nazi’s in terms of conditions , forced them to conceive and carry to term as many children as possible, those children are then experimented on as well or raised to be a soldier in a secret branch of the United States Military. The thought that she was being mistreated by prison guards, dieing slowly forced to bear children - being honest with himself the thought of her in those places turned him on.

He figured she was at least not in New York City anymore, so when she came up to him in a laundromat, he had no idea of what to say in fact looking back he’s pretty sure he lost his mind, he was nice and hugged her, talked to her, he should have hit her, but instead he forgave her, HER! She was only happy when he had at least a dozen cane marks. SHE was the one who’d take her anger out on him, it was ridiculous.

He hateded Sam.

He hated himself.

He still loved her in some strange way.

But who could blame him for not having sane feelings, after his childhood how could blame be laid on  _ him _ .

It was her fault, he would leave ‘for days on end’, she had let other dominants use him at clubs - he was fully in the right when he slept with other women, leaving him because her took off her mark was overreacting.

He was right.

She was wrong.

 

~~~

 

Sam was taking shots at a punching dummy, Chain was showing off over by the weight bench, “So I’ve been replaced by a piece of rubber again.”   A voice rumbled from behind her. She turned folding her arms  and found  Wade was much closer then she thought, she was confronted with a black t-shirt covered chest only about an inch from her face, her arms had hit his abdomen.

“I didn’t think you’d ever show up.” She said taking a step back so she could actually see him.

“I had a few stops to make, the nanny’s visiting family in Hungary next week.”

“How long will you be gone?” She turned back to the dummy, kicking the rubber ribs.

“Week or two.” He walked behind the dummy.

“Yea, and my uncle’s a penguin.”

“Well, I mean he could be.”

“Wade?” She folded her arms, “You know damn well what I mean.” 

 

~~~

 

Megan loves her lab, it was a huge room on the top floor of the tower, there were tables and workbenches covered in anything from blueprints to week old sandwiches, a wall that was just one giant whiteboard complete with a beauty and the beast bookshop style ladder, hand-written notes from when she started her project were in an overflowing cabinet or on desks. 

She walked over the tri-pod she had set up before she left for the hospital two days prior to be on an angle with the  white board and she could see herself in a floor mirror, she turned it on and walked in front and began to talk, “Operation log, Megan Stark. It’s the afternoon of March fourteenth two thousand sixteen and I’ve just come home from what should be the last surgery I’m going to get and when my technology is used by others this should be the only necessary  surgery. After a year and a half I found a way to neatly place the remaining organic nerves,” She turned to her board and began to draw a cylinder with lines coming from both sides, “In simple terms, my brain sends movement signals though these lines here and in my left arm it translates to movement, but in my right arm the information stops in my shoulder because my own nerves end there, with the device implanted now , the device translates the information into something that the robotics in the prosthetics can understand, and instead of stopping my new right arm will move, once I’ve healed enough to support the weight of a human arm on my chopped up shoulder.” The drawing now had many little arrows, “And of course it works the other way the with the receptors placed at each along the entire arm and set to match exactly how much feeling I have in my left arm. But this is for my operation, let’s take a look shall we?” She said starting to unzip her jacket.

 

~~~

 

Now Sam kicked human flesh that grunted, flesh that yelled “Reynolds!” when the arch of her right foot hit it’s lower right ribs, feeling it crack into the abdomen she put her bare foot on the floor and laughed, “Oh, shit,” she laughed, covering her mouth slightly, “Did I break your rib again.”

“I think so, Nurse Sam should look at it.”

“I can’t very well inspect a rib I can’t see, you’ll need to take that shirt off.”

“Nu-uh little miss I-special-order-bras-so-you-can’t-see- my-chest.”

“Did you hear, Chain’s dating one of the Jersey Wife’s.”  _ Change the subject. _

“Changing the subject to a blatant lie will not work Miss Scars.” Wade said in the most fatherly tone he could find and standing - ready for whichever body part of Sam would collide with him next.

“I may be changing the subject, but he is dating one of them - Livin she was the one with the kid.”

 

~~~

Sam is in the lower rooms changing from the sweaty clothes she had worn into her clean fight clothes. Blue running shorts, a black Cheetah Trotter bra - not special ordered, but bought from a store about 5 miles from their apartment building. She wears no shoes - East House rules.

She sits at the large bench in the middle of the room, pulling one of her legs under herself and organizes her hand wraps, she makes two small pads from several kleenex, these are placed next to her, she picks up the first wrap, hooks it over her hand and follows the muscle memory pattern she's known for 5 years - hook, wrist, wrist, wrist, over to the pinkie side, under to between thumb and index finger, over to the wrist, under to between, over to the pinkie side, under the palm to the outside of the thumb, place the pad at the knuckles, over and though the pinkie and ring finger, to the outside, through the ring and middle fingers, to the outside, through middle finger and index finger, under the palm to pinkie side, over the hand, around the thumb, over the wrist to the end, velcro, repeat with the other hand. She was starting her second hand when her first visitor waltzed in.

“Sam?” The woman about 23 said in a sing-song voice.

“Jess?” Sam looked up, smiled and pulled the visitor into a hug, holding the rest of her hand wrap in a clenched fist and encasing as much of Jess as her small arms would allow and wondering if her friend had always been so much taller than her, “It’s been to long, you weren’t put in the pen again were you?”

“No, I’ve just been out of the country, got a contract deal with Baldies School for Youngsters With A Death Wish, I was sent up to Canada to look into this guy who was buying mutants from Asia and selling them out as the perfect workers, telekinetics in factories, healing factors as personal slaves or on the streets - that kind of stuff.”

“So what’s going on with him now.”

“He went missing, all his mutants got out somehow and his clients are dropping like flies.”

“Congrats, you're saving dozens of people.” 

“I heard what happened last week, you okay to be going out there?”

“Reputation’s on the line and all that, I don’t have a lot of choice. I did throw the fight, I’m surprised no one's called me out on it yet.” She laughed, she did even try to fake a struggle last week.

“Losing wasn’t what I wanted to know about. Your miscarriage has been passed around for a few days.” Jess’s voice softened.

“Oh, that, I’m all healed, even went bowling yesterday with Wade and one of his friends.”

“You know that's not what I mean, Sam, I was at the doctors with you  that second time.”

“It was early this time.”

“Sam, time has no bearing here.”

“Unplanned.”

“Samantha.” She crossed her arms.

“Probably wasn’t even Wades.”

“That didn’t matter when you were with Charlie.”

“And if Wade was, how many problems would they have, the man’s technically a corpse.” She laughed again.

Jess pulled her into another hug this one less of seeing an old friend and excited hug and now was comforting hug, Jess was the person who had known Sam the longest, had convinced Madame Daisy to let this mangy looking girl stay with them before she could could work, then instead of being  a working girl to work security, then she was there when she lost her first child, when she was overjoyed when she found out she was pregnant again, Jess was there when the news came that her second pregnancy had miscarried, there during the following low after Charlie had fucked off to who knows where because Sam wouldn’t put out, she was the one who had helped sam pack her things and move out after Charlie disrespected her in front of about 20 people with a terrifying amount of both money and power. Jess knew how much Sam was afraid to feel, how she felt useless and broken when she lost a baby - even though she firmly believed no one should be measured by their ability to conceive. And now Jess was thinking that Sam had actually fallen in love again. Because now she cared who the father was, and that person she wanted was Wade.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a Facebook page for all my works now! - fb.me/AmberKellyDarrow


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